Gruul Aggro has been a part of Standard for a while now, but it's not really a true Gruul Monsters deck. With the mana base skewed so hard to play Goblin Chainwhirler, the deck feels more like a Mono-Red deck with a splash of Green than anything else, and plays out accordingly.

However, Goblin Chainwhirler isn't very effective against Nexus of Fate, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. The time of Goblin Chainwhirler has passed, the time of Llanowar Elves is back again.

Going fast is very important in this format. You must be able to get under the Nexus of Fate decks as well as the control and midrange decks, while being able to keep up with the aggressive decks. Sitting back isn't an option. There's no faster card to play on turn one than Llanowar Elves, and with a suite of new great Red planeswalkers we are off to the races.

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:05:43

Match 2 - 00:25:43

Match 3 - 00:43:55

Match 4 - 01:03:09

Match 5 - 01:16:15

Ahhhh!!! Gruul Monsters | War Standard | Jim Davis

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 3 Legion Warboss
• 3 Paradise Druid
• 4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
• 4 Gruul Spellbreaker
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Rekindling Phoenix

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 2 Chandra, Fire Artisan
• 2 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 3 Sarkhan the Masterless

• Instants (6)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 4 Shock

• Lands (24)
• 8 Forest
• 8 Mountain
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Lava Coil
• 2 Kraul Harpooner
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 2 Carnage Tyrant
• 4 Cindervines
• 1 Legion Warboss
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil

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The new planeswalkers are great!

They're all powerful, aggressive, and most importantly durable, giving your opponent fits when you assemble a board quickly and top it off with a planeswalker. Sarkhan tops off extremely well, and if you ever cast him with a planeswalker already in play you are off to the races. We never got to do it, but the turn one Llanowar Elves, turn two Domri, turn three Sarkhan curve is quite impressive.

With excellent sideboard cards like Cindervines, Lava Coil, and Kraul Harpooner, Gruul can handle most things throw at it. As I said in the video I'd like a little more as far as anti-aggro cards go, and surprisingly Tibalt, Rakish Instigator fits the bill pretty well as a double Footlight Fiend that's also playable against control. Thrashing Brontodon is also on the menu as a large creature that can deal with either Experimental Frenzy or Wilderness Reclamation.

This video was recorded on the Friday before SCG Richmond so nothing is set yet, but this is currently my frontrunner for what I will be playing in the event. Hopefully you're here because I won it!